Thursday, November 18, 2010

Did Alcott Read Austen?

I'm genuinely curious.

As I wrote up my post about Jo sitting lovingly beside Beth's bed, and as I pondered the emotional power of sister kinship in that scene, I kept getting flashes of another sister-at-the-bedside scene: Elinor watching over Marianne Dashwood.

And then I started thinking about the sister threads that run through Austen in general, and how those sister relationships often carry even deeper emotional resonance than the romantic relationships.

And then it occurred to me that family theatricals take place in both Alcott and Austen.

Both of them also enjoy using letters to advance plot and reveal character.

All of these, of course, could be coincidental similarities, or might be owing to other shared influences.

So...is there any evidence anywhere, I wonder, that points to Alcott reading Austen?

4 comments:

Yah, and I can't find anything anywhere to indicate that she did or didn't! Admittedly all I've done is a couple of quick online searches. The main thing Alcott and Austen seem to have in common (at least on google) is the fact that they've both had their works "zombified." Sigh.

About Me

C.S. Lewis once wrote: "I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books." Although my list of influences would be slightly different, it would most likely end on the same note. I have been a bookworm all my life.